Director's police ride-alongs influence serial-killer tale

Thursday

A string of killings torments a small Texas town and the police officers investigating them in Texas Killing Fields, part of the "Nightmares on High Street" series at the Gateway Film Center.

A string of killings torments a small Texas town and the police officers investigating them in Texas Killing Fields, part of the "Nightmares on High Street" series at the Gateway Film Center.

Based on a true story, a detective (Sam Worthington) and his partner, a New York native (Jeffrey Dean Morgan), try to track the killer, who is dumping the mutilated bodies in a swamp.

When an officer in another jurisdiction (Jessica Chastain) - the ex-wife of the Texas detective - gets involved, one imagines that things get testy.

The film is the second release from director Ami Canaan Mann, daughter of director Michael Mann ( Public Enemies, Ali, Heat). According to LA Weekly, she rode with police to get a firsthand look at investigations.

During her tag-alongs, she learned crime-scene techniques - including the idea that police use red duct tape so as not to confuse it with the silver or black tape preferred by killers.

She also learned that movie audiences don't need to see severed limbs on the screen.

And I'm sure I speak for the majority of audience members when I say: Thank you.

Favorite flashbacks

What do a fairy-tale princess, a family visiting a turn-of-the-20th-century World's Fair and an Alpine clan have in common?

I couldn't think of anything, either. But their stories will screen during the "Retro Cinema" series at the Movie Tavern Mill Run.

First up: The Princess Bride (1987). A fairy-tale princess (Robin Wright), engaged to a prince (Chris Sarandon) she dislikes, is kidnapped and hopes to be rescued by her One True Love (Cary Elwes). Lips will meet, and buckles will be swashed.

Judy Garland's career yellow-brick road led through Missouri in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), about a family eager to visit the city's 1903 World's Fair. A little romance adds spice.

The highlight of the movie is the score by Ralph Blaine and Hugh Martin - including The Trolley Song; The Boy Next Door; and Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas, which became a holiday standard.

According to Martin's obituary in The Washington Post published on March 12 - the day after his death at age 96 - the original lyrics of Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas were, at best, bittersweet. A sample:

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas / It may be your last / Next year we will be living in the past."

"Have yourself a merry little Christmas / Let your heart be light / From now on, our troubles will be out of sight."

The chestnut The Sound of Music (1965) features Julie Andrews as a governess for the children of a widowed Austrian naval officer. Whether you love the movie or find it as corny as Fritos, the mountain scenery is undeniably gorgeous.

Finally, The NeverEnding Story (1984), a fantasy about the dreams of a boy as he reads a magical book, will be screened.